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LIEUT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY, E.A., ON 



The exceedingly interesting account that we have just heard from 

 Commander Caborne as to the origin of the Crescent must have 

 informed all of us greatly. It has given us an entirely new view of 

 that emblem, which v>^e now find to be rather a Christian than a 

 Mahommedan one. That does not affect the exceedingly curious 

 fact which Colonel Mackinlay brought before us that the crescent 

 was used by the ancient pagans of the East as an emblem of Venus, 

 and his inference that they had probably seen this planet in its 

 crescent phase. 



As to the meaning of Ashtaroth-Karnaim, that is a very striking 

 Canaanite place-name, occurring so early as it does in the Bible 

 record. It seems to point to the knowledge of Ashtaroth as bearing 

 horns ; and, if Ashtaroth be the same as Venus, whom certainly 

 the intermediate name Istar denotes, and be also (as it conceivably 

 is) the origin of the Greek word aster, we may conclude that the 

 ancients did know that Venus could assume the form of a crescent. 

 But certainly Ashtaroth (or Astarte, as the Greeks called her in her 

 Phenician worship) has hitherto been regarded as the goddess of 

 the moon. 



I should like to say further that it is quite clear that the Lord's 

 ministry lasted three and a half years. Having " returned " from 

 " His forty days' temptation in the power of the Spirit into Galilee," 

 He made disciples at Bethabara, worked a miracle at Cana, and 

 sojourned " not many days " at Capernaum (Luke iv, 14, John i, 28, 

 3.5-51, ii, 1-12). He then went up to keep the Passover at 

 Jerusalem, thus closing a considerable part of a year. Then He 

 repaired with His disciples to a place on the Jordan, where they 

 baptized and made many converts. They were there some length 

 of time — some months we may presume, — but when He learnt that 

 the Jews had heard that He was making more disciples than John, 

 wishing not to eclipse John's reputation, He went northward to 

 Galilee. That the Lord should h.ive been quite eight months teach- 

 ing and His disciples baptizing ere this step became needful would 

 be only natural in view of the tremendous popularity of John. 



Professor Orchard. — We have to thank the author for a paper 

 marked l)y much thoughtfulness and originality. He says himself, 

 witli characteristic modesty, that he has not l)rought forward strong 

 evidences, but merely inferences. That of course is true. The 

 main supj)orts of his theory we may say are the remarkable facts 



